King Rupert farts out another decree, and Stop Murdoch says "Farewell"!

'The Guardian' report that the emporer has no clothes [21/10/10]:

... Our new world is one of modern mass communication, phone and text, without limit. Democracy will be from the bottom up, not from the top down. Even so, a free society requires an independent press: turbulent …enquiring…bustling…and free.

That's why our journalism is hard-driving and questioning of authority. And so are our journalists. Often, I have cause to celebrate editorial endeavour. Occasionally, I have had cause for regret.

Let me be clear: We will vigorously pursue the truth – and we will not tolerate wrongdoing. ...

We have nothing more to say about the emporer and his wideranging posse of arselickers, apologists, liars, warmongers, free marketeers, racists, anti-intellectuals, religious bigots and sexists - from his readers and advertisers, to his fascist mates in the establishment and our political leaders.

Just remember it's your taxes that pay for the Government who refuse to curtail his monopoly media control, along with the advertising dollars which keeps his crummy propaganda sheets afloat.

We wish you and yours a nice future.

It's only because of people like Drew Hutton and the refugee advocates who handed out flyers to the ugly rednecks at Adelaide Hills last night that this might be possible!

Take care of yourselves.

Stephen Mayne Tries To Stop Murdoch

News Corporation held its annual shareholders meeting in New York on Friday. The 'New York Times' had an interesting piece about it.

On the subject of their increasingly obvious, embarrassing and unhinged bias, Murdoch and the board were unapologetic:

The shareholder also asked Mr. Murdoch and the chairman of the audit committee, Sir. Roderick I. Eddington, if the company “weighed the reputational risk, given that this is a media company and there are very clear concerns about the objectivity of news reporting and the perception that such sizable contributions” would compromise the company’s news gathering activities.

Mr. Eddington said, “donations of this type are also evaluated and reviewed by our general counsel, to make sure they’re appropriate in that context as well.”

Stephen Mayne was there and has posted about his contribution to the shareholder question and answer session. It's worth checking out the whole thing, especially the parts about the phone hacking scandal and Murdoch's attempts to pretend he's never heard of Jon Stewart, Bruce Guthrie, Bruce Dover or any of their writings.

But our favourite laugh was right at the end when Mayne congratulates Murdoch for firing Glenn Milne:

Mayne: ... Well done for firing Glenn Milne, that, ah, journalist of yours who drunkenly pushed me off the stage at the WalkleyAwards in 2006 live on national television. It was a disgrace. You defended him at that last gathering we had. But you fired him since, and I'd like to say congratulations for finally doing that, and thankyou for your time today.

Murdoch: Thankyou, I'm not responsible for firing him, but that's fine. I didn't know anything about it.

Do Mayne and Murdoch know something we don't? Sure Milne has been spending the last few months as a kind of Murdoch Fifth Column spouting his rubbish at their ABC, but is there something we missed?

Do you know if Milne has really been 'fired'?

The Gold Coast Sun Has A Problem With "The Truth"!

"... In publishing this story, the Sun does so without an accompanying image on our front page, mainly because of the emotion fuelling debate on genuine - and not-so-genuine - asylum seekers in detention. ..."

What is the sound of coffee or beer or some other liquid involuntarily coming out of your mouth when you see something astonishing?

Prrphhsssttt...! (cough, gag, cough splutter...)?

So, Murdoch, "Mr Truth", fabricates a non-story (yet again, ho hum) and screams at no-one in particular that HE DEMANDS THE TRUTH!!!

Bizarro World? Parallel Universe? Inverse Reality?

Is there anything that can be done about these people? Who knows, but we're certainly not going to die wondering. We decided to write to the Minister and ask him:

Chris Bowen MP
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship
Parliament House


Dear Minister,

I refer to articles published in this week's 'Gold Coast Sun'.

Appalling journalism and xenophobic fear mongering aside, I think it is the 'Gold Coast Sun' who are not telling the truth.

Could you please confirm if expanded services for refugees are to be placed on the Gold Coast?

Could you also please confirm whether these stories contain any truth at all?

Regards,


Gold Coast citizen.

Maybe you could try it yourself sometime?

Why do academics who claim to be calling for progressive change keep writing for the Murdoch Press?

Today 4ZzZ's 'Anarchy Show' [11/10/10] reported that Professor Ross Fitzgerald wrote something about the Queensland Police force in last weekend's 'Australian'.

Odd.

In any case, no Australian with a brain is reading the Murdoch Press anymore.

Perplexing that academics and other commentators keep writing for it, linking to it (do they know that gives Murdoch money?) and referring to it.

The symptoms are eerily similar to Battered Person Syndrome:

In lay terms, this is a reference to any person who, because of constant and severe domestic violence usually involving physical abuse by a partner, becomes depressed and unable to take any independent action that would allow him or her to escape the abuse. The condition explains why abused people often do not seek assistance from others, fight their abuser, or leave the abusive situation. Sufferers have low self-esteem, and often believe that the abuse is their fault. Such persons usually refuse to press criminal charges against their abuser, and refuse all offers of help, often becoming aggressive or abusive to others who attempt to offer assistance. Often sufferers will even seek out their very abuser for comfort shortly after an incident of abuse.

That seems to be what's going on with these people who, you would think, should know better.

What will it take for Australians to stand up and say "enough is enough"?

'The Age' report [9/10/10]:

Television producer and on-air personality Andrew Denton is on a secret News Limited blacklist of public figures who are not welcome in Rupert Murdoch's national newspaper, The Australian, according to a book being launched this week.

Former Herald Sun editor-in-chief Bruce Guthrie, in his book Man Bites Murdoch, says he first got wind of the Murdoch blacklist when he was editor of the Weekend Australian Magazine in 2005 and Denton was profiled in a regular segment ''Ten things you didn't know about … ''

Guthrie says the deputy editor, Graham Erbacher, approached him and half-whispered: ''You know that Denton is persona non grata around here.'' Guthrie asked why. ''It all goes back to Super League,'' Erbacher replied. ...

In 1999 Denton aired his feelings on the ABC show Australian Story: ''I wish I could take Lachlan Murdoch (and) Ken Cowley by their smug little jowls and sit them down for a while and explain something to them … Tradition in sport is a very, very powerful thing.''

Three weeks after the ''Ten Things'' segment on Denton appeared, the paper's editor-in-chief, Chris Mitchell, phoned Guthrie to ask why he had published it. Guthrie says he replied: ''It was pretty innocuous stuff, Chris. (It) even said nice things about Rupert.''

Mitchell: I've just had Lachlan on the phone from New York and he's not happy. In fact he's very pissed off.

The Age Media Browser column reported in August the existence of a blacklist of Murdoch enemies. In his book, Guthrie says he asked Mitchell who else was on the blacklist. He says Mitchell replied: ''You'll know when it happens.''

A newspaper search of the past two years found 78 stories in The Australian that mentioned Denton, 90 in The Age and 108 in the Herald Sun.

It will be interesting to read the book and see whether it follows the typical style of memoir of ex-Murdoch staff. Hugh Lunn did it with Working For Rupert, and Andrew Neil, who was a senior lieutenant of Murdoch, including as editor of The Sunday Times in London, for 11 years up until 1994, later wrote Full Disclosure. John D’Arcy, who was a senior loyal lieutenant to Murdoch for years before Murdoch cruelly flew him to London at short notice to give him the shaft, wrote Media Mayhem.

There are plenty of others. They all follow the general pattern: "Rupert Murdoch is a cruel, vindictive, shifty, duplicitous despot who rules through fear and anxiety. I knew this and here are some examples. Then, one day he shafted ME! It was so unfair."

If you know any young people who are considering working for Murdoch, force them to read some of these books first. Then challenge them to find a single book about what a terriic and honest bloke Murdoch is. Even his authorised biography by Michael Wolff, The Man Who Owns The News, doesn't manage it.

We already know what type of person he is and what type of organisation he runs. What will it take to stop this?

At least in the U.S. he pays them to kiss his arse

In Australia they do it for free!

Imagine reading a piece like this in any Australian media:

A note to Tea Party activists: This is not the movie you think it is. You probably imagine that you’re starring in “The Birth of a Nation,” but you’re actually just extras in a remake of “Citizen Kane.” ...

As the Republican political analyst David Frum put it, “Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us, and now we are discovering we work for Fox” — literally, in the case of all those non-Mitt-Romney presidential hopefuls. It was days later, by the way, that Mr. Frum was fired by the American Enterprise Institute. Conservatives criticize Fox at their peril.

So the Ministry of Propaganda has, in effect, seized control of the Politburo. What are the implications?

Perhaps the most important thing to realize is that when billionaires put their might behind “grass roots” right-wing action, it’s not just about ideology: it’s also about business. What the Koch brothers have bought with their huge political outlays is, above all, freedom to pollute. What Mr. Murdoch is acquiring with his expanded political role is the kind of influence that lets his media empire make its own rules.

Thus in Britain, a reporter at one of Mr. Murdoch’s papers, News of the World, was caught hacking into the voice mail of prominent citizens, including members of the royal family. But Scotland Yard showed little interest in getting to the bottom of the story. Now the editor who ran the paper when the hacking was taking place is chief of communications for the Conservative government — and that government is talking about slashing the budget of the BBC, which competes with the News Corporation.

Australia is in deep trouble. Both main parties are willing slaves to the neo-liberal free-market fundamentalism which is rotting our country to its core, and they are willing slaves to the Murdoch propaganda arm of that ideological movement.

If you don't do something to raise your voice against that, you are also playing along.

We were wrong about Murdoch!

Sorry everyone, apparently he's NOT a horrible old fascist and his media outlets ARE fair and balanced:

Murdoch, Bloomberg embrace immigration reform

By SUZANNE GAMBOA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- They weren't as funny as television Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert, but media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg made a similar appeal to Congress: Do something about immigration.

Murdoch, the founder of News Corp., urged lawmakers during a hearing Thursday to match attempts to secure the border with efforts to ensure that employers can't hire people illegally. ...

Murdoch and Bloomberg lead a coalition of businesses and mayors to push for immigration reform. The group supports providing a path to legal status for those in the U.S. illegally. Murdoch himself was born in Australia and, while expanding his interests in U.S. media, became an American citizen in 1985. Citizenship allowed him to own U.S. television stations.

"As an immigrant, I chose to live in America because it is one of the freest and most vibrant nations in the world. And as an immigrant, I feel an obligation to speak up for immigration policies that will keep America the most economically robust, creative and freedom-loving nation in the world," he said.

The illegal immigrant population has tripled in the U.S., even as the government has increased enforcement spending almost every year since 1992, Murdoch said. The wave of immigrants only started to crest when the country hit a recession, he said.

Murdoch and Bloomberg said they believe Congress needs to help employers discern between workers authorized to work in the U.S and those who are not. The Obama administration has been auditing employers to find those hiring people illegally.

Rep. Maxine Waters, a Democrat, told Murdoch she thought his support for immigration reform did not match coverage of the immigration issue by Fox News, which is a large part of his News Corp. empire. She said his testimony was contradictory to Fox News "talking about anchor babies." The term, considered derogatory by some, is a reference to children born to at least one illegal immigrant parent.

"Why don't you use your power to help us to promote what you are talking about?" Waters asked.

"I would say that we do," Murdoch said. "We certainly employ a lot of immigrants at Fox ... and we do not take any consistent anti-immigrant line."

Murdoch said he would have no trouble supporting his hearing testimony on Fox News, "nor would a great number of the commentators on Fox News." ...

Well there you go, we've obviously got him all wrong!

Is That True, Or Did The 'ABC' Just Copy It From 'The Australian'?

Shamelessly Cut-n-Pasted from Deltoid:

Is that true, or did you read it in The Australian?

Category: Leakegate

The Australian breathlessly informs us that:

The UN is to appoint an astrophysicist to be the first contact for any aliens ...

Mazlan Othman will describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society's Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire.

But Matthew Weaver at the Guardian has spoiled the fun by contacting Othman:

Apart from the hilarious picture, the thing about this story is that the ABC was still repeating this as fact, without acknowledging that it came from the hopelessly discredited Murdoch 'press', at least a full day after it had been debunked.

Overwhelming evidence is gradually building up that there is something untoward going on between the inner workings of the ABC (apparently up to the highest levels of the organisation) and the Murdoch machine.

28 September: Boycott Murdoch Day

Tomorrow the new federal parliament sits.

Make a statement.

Don't buy Murdoch's newspapers, don't watch his pay television and don't click on his websites.

Boycott any ABC shows which feature Murdoch employees.

Make a point of sending an email or a letter to your elected representatives letting them know how you feel about Murdoch's dangerously powerful control of our media.

It's only one day, it's not a hard thing to do.

Who would think the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior was a joke?

Tonight [20/9/10], the ABC screened an excellent documentary about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985:

This week on Four Corners, "Return to the Rainbow Warrior", a story that attempts to finally get to the truth of a murderous attack that New Zealanders describe as an act of state sponsored terrorism. ...

That brought to mind a 'Spring Hill Voice' story from way back in October 2007:

Rupert's Cultural Warriors Hard At Work On The Gold Coast

Cast your mind back to 1985 when Greenpeace was actively campaigning to stop French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific Ocean….

Every Tuesday, Gold Coast residents are the lucky recipients of a News Ltd. throw-away, 'The Sun'.

It's a useful read if you want to buy a car, are looking to have your prejudices confirmed or enjoy spending your hard earned money on consumer items.

'The Sun' employs that classic News Ltd. strategy of incorporating little columns and articles that convey confusing messages to the reader, amidst the array of advertising and propaganda.

Said messages seem very clear to me:

If you drive down to the shops and buy enviro-lightbulbs to put in your green bags, there will be no global warming, and your grandchildren will live forever in an antipodean wonderland where the car reigns supreme and the rivers will run with desalinated water, bombing Iran is the proper thing to do because people in the Middle East are terrorists, health and education are privileges rather than taxpayer rights, women should fulfil their role of either being a breeder or a prostitute, unions are the devil, and any organic event or artistic experience not sponsored and contrived by a corporation should be viewed with suspicion and disdain.

Take this week's 'By The Way' column by Peter Barnes. It is headed by a photo of the half sunken "Rainbow Warrior" and the caption reads: "HOLED… Greenpeace members should have remembered to put the bungs back in the Rainbow Warrior". That is so funny - oh ba ha ha ha! Next week Barnes could use a photo of the ruins of the "Sari Club" in Bali with a caption like: "Drunken Yob Aussie's have too many Flaming Sambuccas!"

The column is oh so chatty and light, with its sidesplitting local anecdotes. This week, the first is about a corporate 'green' marketing promotion by 'The Sun"' (the last is about some locals who forgot to put the bungs back in their tinny, which then sank) - but why use a photo of the Rainbow Warrior? Rupert's cultural warriors are as hard to turn around as a battleship, so Barnes has to grudgingly acknowledge his master's edict with a cynical plug for consumer environmentalism while snidely mocking the very real and very dead victims of the same enviro-wars he is now cashing in on, with a joke about dedicated people killed by the illegal French bombing in New Zealand.

And News Ltd's hacks have the gall to accuse this site of being "horse-shit"! Their hypocrisy is staggering.

UPDATE!! Peter Barnes writes his usual lightweight column this week [17/10/07] but, after the 'Sun' had a few letters making the same point as we have, finishes with:

"Several readers questioned the use of a picture of the ship Rainbow Warrior to illustrate an item last week. Well, they were absolutely right and I salute those alert readers who take the trouble to comment when they see something they believe to be wrong."

It's typical of a Murdoch "correction" or "apology" isn't it? You know: 'Well sooorrrrryyy, then!' With a veiled hint that whingey wimps can't take a joke.

Fuckwits.

A Great Idea

Journalism Warning Labels:


From Tom Scott's 'Making Stuff Happen' blog:

It seems a bit strange to me that the media carefully warn about and label any content that involves sex, violence or strong language — but there's no similar labelling system for, say, sloppy journalism and other questionable content.

I figured it was time to fix that, so I made some stickers. I've been putting them on copies of the free papers that I find on the London Underground. You might want to as well.

Go to his website and print some for yourself.

We bought a box of 6,500 labels for $25 from Officeworks.

Do something before the momentum fades

The hung parliament presents ordinary Australians with a unique opportunity to call for changes that will make this country a more equitable, inclusive and nicer place to live.

As the political lobby group 'GetUp!' have said in an email to supporters [10/9/10]:

... In this new political climate, GetUp members have an unprecedented opportunity to clean up politics, shape the way this new Parliament works and determine the direction of our country. ...

'GetUp!' are also asking members and supporters to undertake a survey to assist them in mapping their next steps to keep the momentum going.

So if like us, you feel our democracy is threatened by the Murdoch machine, we encourage you to complete their survey and/or write to your elected representative and let them know that the most urgent step is to reign in the divisive influence of the Murdoch Press:

The move to a progressive Australia can only be achieved if the problem of media ownership, which has reached saturation point as evidenced by News Ltd.'s hysterical attacks on the democratic outcome of the federal election, is urgently corrected.

To begin with, we suggest:

1. Dismantling the virtual monopoly of the Murdoch Press;

2. Purging the ABC of all News Ltd. influence and think tank influence;

3. Immediately ceasing all Government advertising in the Murdoch Press (GetUp! should do this too)

The Tide Is Turning

Who would ever have imagined that Laura Tingle would be able to say this on tonight's [10/09/10] Lateline?

... Leigh Sales: Laura Tingle in your regular Friday column today you wrote that the Labor minority government is trying to figure out whether to respond to what it sees as a ferocious and continuing campaign against its legitimacy by News Ltd. newspapers. Elaborate on that for us.

Laura Tingle, AFR: Leigh, I think that there has been a long history of tension particularly with the Australian with Kevin Rudd. And it was always seen as an issue with the Australian rather than News Ltd.

The News Ltd. tabloids seem to have escalated their aggression towards the Labor party during the election campaign, but I think it's really been the post campaign push against/ attacks on the credibility of a minority government as an idea, the attacks on the independents and The Greens, which has made people think "this isn't going to go away. We're not quite sure why this is happening, but we've got to decide whether we actually confront this, or whether we just let it go through to the keeper."

I suppose the interesting thing is, I think there are interesting issues here for both News Ltd. and for the government because there are all these commercial decisions, that the government will have to take which will have a direct impact on News.

It's a very big elephant in the room, and I think we don't really know how that's going to play out. And it's also not just Labor, it's the Greens and the independents and we've got Bob Brown now, talking about how he's had enough of the way News Ltd has been behaving and he's not going to cop it anymore.

Leigh Sales: George Megalogenis, I don't want to put you in an awkward position, I'm sorry, but you are a News Ltd. journalist ....

Who wouldn't be "sorry" for anyone who ends up being a News Ltd "journalist"?

A new Australian media/journalism blog

The Failed Estate

The tyranny of constant publication

... At some point, though, the ability to publish instantly must start to work against comprehension. While there's nothing wrong with journalists providing running commentary on breaking news events, you wonder sometimes whether we're at risk of losing the benefit of the long view - or even the middle view that used to rest somewhere between the immediacy of wire service snaps and the pampered perspective of magazine journalism.

The more the merrier!

It woz News wot lost it

Matthew "Rupert says you've got it wrong" Franklin

The independents have come out swinging against Murdoch's crude bullying attempts to tell them what to do.

In essence, what swayed Oakeshott and Windsor to back Labor rather than the Coalition was the relentless hammering by Murdoch's hacks of the talking point that Australians really wanted an Abbott government.

Sucked in you losers.

If you're scared of Murdoch, you don't deserve to call yourself a journalist

The 'New York Times' report [1/9/10]:

In November 2005, three senior aides to Britain’s royal family noticed odd things happening on their mobile phones. Messages they had never listened to were somehow appearing in their mailboxes as if heard and saved. Equally peculiar were stories that began appearing about Prince William in one of the country’s biggest tabloids, News of the World.

The stories were banal enough (Prince William pulled a tendon in his knee, one revealed). But the royal aides were puzzled as to how News of the World had gotten the information, which was known among only a small, discreet circle. They began to suspect that someone was eavesdropping on their private conversations.

By early January 2006, Scotland Yard had confirmed their suspicions. An unambiguous trail led to Clive Goodman, the News of the World reporter who covered the royal family, and to a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, who also worked for the paper. The two men had somehow obtained the PIN codes needed to access the voice mail of the royal aides. ...

Goodman and Mulcaire ended up in jail. But don't worry, they both sued for unfair dismissal and settled for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Murdoch's other crooks got off scot free even though subsequent civil litigation cost him a nice chunk of cash. Of course, these crooks don't care about that. It hasn't stopped them from their usual low-life dishonesty.

Read the whole 'NY Times' article, it's a cracker. And for those of you who care about things here in Australia, the ABC or possible motives behind Murdoch's local outlets disgracefully rubbish journalism:

"An avalanche of unforgiving coverage culminated on April 8, one month before the general election, in a Sun story headlined “Brown’s a Clown.” Brown’s strategists assumed that Murdoch’s motives were not purely ideological. They drew up a campaign document conjuring Murdoch’s wish list should David Cameron become prime minister. Among the top items they identified was the weakening of the government-financed BBC, one of Murdoch’s biggest competitors and long a target of criticism from News International executives. On May 11, David Cameron officially assumed the position and elevated Coulson to the head of communications. Within the week, Rupert Murdoch arrived at 10 Downing Street for a private meeting with the new prime minister. Cameron’s administration criticized the BBC in July for “extraordinary and outrageous waste” during difficult financial times and proposed cutting its budget."

What are you doing to Stop Murdoch? We suggest reading this great article and giving it to everyone you know.

Murdoch press reckon they, not Fred Nile, are God's police

What's the real story behind this?

That's what your ABC should be finding out for you.

...The Daily Telegraph reports a parliamentary internet audit shows that Reverend Nile's computer has been used to access internet pornography. ...

Australians are sick of this rubbish instead of real journalism. Tony Windsor MP summed it up nicely a week or so ago:

... “I wouldn’t give that paper the time of day,” he said, referring to the Daily Telegraph.

“It just shows the role of some within the media in terms of the election process that we’ve just gone through.

“I won’t be taking the Telegraph as one of my political advisers.

“I don’t give the article or the paper any credibility at all.” ...

It's time we ran these crooks and liars out of town.

John Cusack joins Stop Murdoch!

John Cusack has shared his opinion of Murdoch's Fox News:

“I AM FOR A SATANIC DEATH CULT CENTER AT FOX NEWS HQ AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICES [of] DICK ARMEY AND NEWT GINGRICH-and all the GOP WELFARE FREAKS,”

Welcome aboard Mr Cusack!

Only an absolute bastard would kick a man when he's down

Remember this?:

Footage of the 'Sunday Times'' entrapment of the National Director of Fisheries for the Republic of Guinea, broadcast on the ABC's 'Lateline'

And this?:

SBS World News Australia's 6.30 PM news bulletin [24/5/10]

Well bear these disgraces in mind before you give any credence to anything arising from a 'report' or 'sting' originated in a Murdoch rag.

They are, literally, proven crooks and liars. Not to mention, bastards.

Shame your ABC again sees fit to report this discredited rubbish as news.

Why do the ethics of these "stings" go unquestioned?

And aren't millions of people in Pakistan still displaced at the moment?

Absolute bastards.

All Around The World People Are Stopping Murdoch

The latest is from "Color Of Change" where they are telling businesses to Stop Murdoch by turning off 'Fox' in public places.

"Color Of Change" in the USA is running a campaign against Glenn Beck.

Join in!